The Lipaks Way

The Lipaks Way: Introduction and Overview for New Players

(This text may be freely copied and distributed so long as it remains unaltered and intact)

Index: Unit 00 (Introductions), Topic 01, Volume 00.

(last revision: 2005-01-24, filename: intronew.lip)

The Lipaks Way is a complex and detailed fantasy roleplaying game. To become an advanced player or a game manager requires a lot of reading. But for those who want to just plunge in and start playing, this text is intended to provide the bare minimum necessary information. It is written with the assumption that the reader is familiar with frp gaming. Those who aren't should first read "Fantasy Roleplaying For Beginners".

The first tenet of roleplaying is "pretend you're there and say what you do". The second tenet is "know the setting". This text presents the most basic features of that setting. With that, and a little patience, it is possible for a player to participate and enjoy the game. This simplified description leaves out most of the details, rules and numbers. The gm can keep track of those, in fact needs to, so when a player "says what they do", they'll know to what extent the action is possible. The gm will also advise the player on choices and let them know when they need to roll dice.

§01 The Genre

The Lipaks Way simulates the fantasy subgenre of "deep fantasy". That is, while the presence of the supernatural and the paranormal are undeniable, they are not ubiquitous. Technology is preindustrial. Religion is mostly pragmatic. History is rich and layered and has many secrets. It is also a mostly low powered game, the player characters are distinguished from the rest of the population more by their motivation than their superior abilities.

§02 The World

The world of Lipaks is very large compared to the normal speed of transportation and communication. There are always new and strange lands to discover. There is room enough to support several different independent campaigns. The most detailed area, and where most current campaigns take place, is the northern border region of the might empire of Laranideb Nambeth.

This is a living world, it has an ongoing history that player characters can potentially shift at key points but not completely divert.

§03. Adventure Settings

Specific settings are up to the gm, of course. But when i am gm, i prefer to use large scale events, such as political strife, religious movements and natural disasters as background. Even classic adventure concepts such as quests tend to be derivative of the larger picture.

§04 Character Concepts

There are many different character concepts, but they are all implementations of a few basic categories, such as combat, stealth, and the paranormal. Characters are made up components and numbers which determine their basic capabilities. A character's actual effectiveness depends on how the player utilizes those capabilities.

There are several approaches to character creation in the complete rules, but for the purpose of this introduction, there is only one: read the background information, come up with a rough description, and let the gm fill it out.

§05 Character Components

The incidentals of a character's description, such as height and weight, age, looks, family background, favorite food or hobbies, are pretty much up to the player, provided they aren't outside the potential range. For instance a member of hyuumin species would not be 3 meters tall without some kind of rationale which the gm would have to approve.

Aside from that, a character is defined by its endowment and repertory. Endowment is what the character was born with, that is what they are before they go and learn things. Repertory is what they've acquired since.

§05.1 Endowment Components

Species is the first component of endowment. A character's species gives their basic physiology, range of characteristics and certain capabilities.

Attributes measure the most fundamental capabilities of a character. There are eight, defined as follows:

1. Strength: Muscle Power.

2. Nimbleness: Agility, Coordination.

3. Fortitude: Toughness, Health, Recuperation.

4. Facility: General Physical Talent.

5. Intelligence: Problem Solving, Pattern Recognition, Memory.

6. Volition: Willpower, Focus, Common Sense.

7. Quid: Paranormal Connection.

8. Acumen: General Mental Talent.

§05.2 Repertory Components

Repertory can get very complex so in this text i'm only going to mention two components, type and skill.

A simple type is a group of capabilities packaged together, which collectively define a character's function, such as fighting, sneaking, or spellcasting. As a character progresses, these capabilities can be improved, but only as a group. Every character must have a type.

A skill is a single capability, which need not have any relationship to any other one, such as singing, leatherwork, or herblore. They intended to broaden a character's function. Skills can be improved singly or in groups. Skills are optional.

A complex type is a combination of a simple type and a specific collection of skills. These will not be available to beginning players.

§06 Arcane Energies

Arcane energies are imperceptible to the unadept but the adept can wield them to create material effect. Here i will discuss only two: magic and dynamis.

Magic occurs everywhere naturally, like water that comes down as rain, and it can be stored and manipulated by practitioners.

Dynamis is more like water from fountains. It occurs only in specific places and times and results from divine activity. Usually it is only available to a practitioner with a dedicated relationship to the source.

While the two energies work in similar ways and are often used for similar effects, they are not identical or interchangeable.

§06.01 Spellcasting and Incantation

There are two ways to perform a spell.

Spellcasting is a purely mental activity. To do it requires the possession of complete knowledge of the desired spell and sufficient power to activate it. The power is shaped by an act of will and sent forth and the whole thing takes mere seconds.

Incantation requires at least partial knowledge of the desired spell. But the ritual use of physical props and exercises, as well as extended amounts of time, are substituted for some or all of the power.

§07 Combat

Combat is somewhat abstract. Characters that rush in tend to die. Be careful.

§08 Cost and Advancement

Every component has a numerical value which is a rough measure of its contribution to a character's overall effectiveness. This is also the basic cost for improve that component. When components are grouped together, the total cost is less than the sum of the individual values, but the group must be improved as a whole. In general, the more capabilities a character has, whether inborn, such as a species characteristic of being able to see in the dark, or acquired, as in attunement to magic, the more it will take for them to advance.

§09 Basic Character Types

§09.1 Combat Types

All of these specialize in combat

Fighters fight and use force. Scrappers fight and use flexibility.

§09.2 Contriver Types

All of these use stealth and flexibility.

Thieves specialize in stealing stuff in urban environments.

Skulkers specialize in stealing stuff in rural environments.

Scouts specialize in infiltration in rural environments.

Sharpsters specialize in theft through misdirection and sleight of hand.

§09.3 Dynamistic Types

Hierurges can utilize dynamis directly or through incantation.

Sacerdotes can utilize dynamis, but only through incantation.

§09.4 Magical Types

Thaumaturges can utilize magic directly or through incantation.

Conjurers can utilize magic, but only through incantation.

§10 Spelling and Pronunciation.

The names of people and things inside the world all use a phonetic spelling system. After all, they're all being transliterated into English from their original languages so there's no point in making them irregular.

There is no X or Q. There is no C except in the CH combination, which never sounds like SH. G never sounds like j. S never sounds like Z except when you are making an english plural or possessive. Y is always a consonant. Single vowels are always short, even when they end a word. Double vowels are always long. AO is sounded as in mAOism. AU is sounded as in cAUght, which is a longer sound than the O in cOt. AR as in cAR. AER as in AERoplane. ER as in hER. EAR as in hEAR. OE as in GOEbbels. OI as in cOIn. OU as in cOUld. UU as in vacUUm or like OO in mOOn, there is no preceding Y sound. TH as in THin. DH like TH in THen. KH as in KHanukah. ZH like Z in aZure.

There are no silent letters. If a consonant is doubled, both letters are pronounced, for example: "FLA-Jes-SAV".

All character names must conform to this system.

§11 Peoples

Creatures that share a basic body format make up a germane. A germane consists of at least one species. A species is a stable interbreeding population whose members share a common endowment. A species may be divided into races. Races within a given species differ only in superficial features and exist mainly to hang different cultures on.

§12 The Simian Germane

The simian germane is a group of species whose physiology shares many basic characteristics such as being mammals, having two arms, two legs, one head, and all looking like modified apes. Most of the sentient beings in the world belong to this germane.

Four simian species make up the majority population in the area where most games take place. These are called hyuumins, flajessavs, braksonts and dargaolhuuns. Most members of each have heard something about the others, albeit accuracy varies widely.

Hyuumins, by far the most numerous, are known for their aggressiveness and intense procreative instinct, both of which they by turns celebrate or try to control. Often they combine the two, and speak of "sex and violence" as if they naturally go together. Their willingness to commit violence towards each other is not limited to immediate conflict, they've been known to go out of their way to find someone to hurt and they often continue after their objective is achieved. When it comes to non hyuumins, there seems to be no limit to their aggression. And their sex drive leads them to irrational excesses in seeking partners both inside and outside their own species. Additionally, hyuumins can form strong emotional relationships, which continue to affect them even after ending. Hyuumins use terms such as "trauma", "baggage", and "fallout" to describe this. Perhaps as a consequence, hyuumin group relationships tend to be unstable. They seem to have an intrinsic need to build elaborate and cumbersome social structures and to tear those same structures down.

Flajessavs find this behavior distasteful, braksonts consider it annoying. Hyuumins also spend a lot of time listing and categorizing things. They're the ones who most seem to care what other peoples, whether inside or outside their own species, are doing. That is, when they're not trying to kill them or take their land. Physically, hyuumins are a lot like earthlings.

Flajessavs are described by hyuumins as "ethereal" or "exotic". Hyuumins make much of their narrow vertically pointed ears, slitted eyes, long jaws, delicate even fingered hands, and fine soft shimmering hair. They also speculate endlessly about flajessav sex, which is rather futile given the very low reproductive impulse in a species that can live 300 years. But flajessavs do snuggle together and groom each other a lot, which is probably what confuses the hyuumins. But their sex drive is not the only instinctive behavior in which flajessavs differ from hyuumins. They also have little inclination to hurt each other. Flajessav warfare consists mainly of shoving and smacking, with a few elbows when things get really heated. They have a similar aversion to hurting other simians, but can learn quickly if they have to. Likewise flajessavs automatically help each other. They do not understand the hyuumin concept of "morality", a list of things to do that flajessavs always do, or not do that flajessavs would never think of doing. Flajessav instinct also includes a sense of esthetics and a drive for order and cleanliness that in a hyuumin would be considered psychotic. Hyuumins often call flajessavs by words indicative of their own impression of otherworldly beauty such as "fairy". Hyuumins also tend to assume that all flajessavs have magic. Flajessavs tend to think of things in much finer detail than hyuumins do. They recognize 12 distinct levels of personal affection, and see 24 colors in the rainbow. Hyuumins sometimes mistake this precision for subtlety. Flajessavs in turn tend to be mystified by the hyuumin ability to slide between concepts with nuance or metaphor.

Braksonts stand about chest high to shoulder high to hyuumins, but they are significantly more robust of build. Their torsos are close to the same length as those of hyuumins, but their legs are proportionally a little shorter and their arms considerably shorter. They have rough, almost scaley greenish gray skin, long growing shaggy coppery hair all over their heads, shoulders and arms, massive skulls with craggy overhanging brow ridges, large deeply black sunken eyes, and big square yellowish green teeth. Braksonts are slightly less aggressive towards their own species than towards hyuumins, but it's hard to tell because they always seem on the verge of bloody mayhem. In fact, although their instincts lead them to settle disputes by brawling, there are rarely casualties. At least among the adults. Children get little consideration and are born knowing that once the dust settles, everyone will go along with the winning faction. Children who forget that don't always grow up. Braksonts can have feuds, long smoldering grudges, and even war, but once these are over, they are over. With members of other species, the first impulse of an individual braksont tends to be hostility, whereas groups tend towards suspicion. Hyuumins, who have a long tradition of diplomacy among themselves, find it indispensable for dealing with braksonts. Flajessav, who don't, tend to just stay clear since they have trouble not provoking braksonts.

Braksonts seem to have a need for hard work, especially in metal and stone, and hyuumins usually picture them as a whole species of smiths. Actually, there are plenty of braksonts that do other things, but in their mostly underground group dwellings, it's the hammer work that gets the most attention. It is also true that their main deity, Krang, is a smith. Hyuumins do not speculate about braksont sex because, well, eeew! Hyuumins are sometimes tempted to call braksonts by words which imply something smaller than normal-- words like "runt", "stumpy", or "squat", but they rarely do so because braksonts react violently to someone else trying to define normal for them. And use of the "d word", that is "dwarf", has been known to instigate genocide.

Dargaolhuuns are about waist high to belly high to hyuumins. They tend to dislike it when hyuumins call them things like "halfling", "half pint", "shrimp", or "pip-squeak", but there is little they can do about it. By hyuumin standards, dargaolhuuns are built like walking barrels with cylindrical trunks and broad flat splay toed feet. Their long fingers are also splayed and broad at the ends, which helps them grip things. Their faces are long and sharp chinned, their ears are leaf shaped and stick out to the sides slightly, and their noses are big and bulbous. They have thick tufts of hair in lines along the fronts of their limbs and fine hair along the edges of their faces. There is no need to speculate about dargaolhuun sexuality, they have the same drive as the hyuumins, but with less ability to suppress it. But then, with their 40 year lifespan they need it. The rest of their instincts are also pretty much the same as those of hyuumins, except that they are less aggressive. Their natural response to threats is avoidance, which makes them sniveling cowards by hyuumin standards. Most of them live among hyuumins who see them as natural servants. And indeed they are very effective at anticipating and fulfilling the needs of those they call the "big folk", but when it's time to jump into that big writhing pile, there's nothing their employers can do about it. Their physiology is mostly the same as that of hyuumins as well. Flajessavs have been known to classify (on those few occasions when they bother) dargaolhuuns as a sub species of hyuumin.

§13 Places of Interest

§13.01 The Land

There is a continent so enormous that most of its inhabitants are unaware of its full size or shape. Most just call it "The Land". At the eastern edge the land meets the Gorvij Sea. All the countries listed are hyuumin created.

§13.02 The Empire

The Empire of Laranideb Nambeth is usually just called "The Empire". Nearly 5000 kilometers east to west, and perhaps 3000 north to south, it nonetheless occupies only a fraction of the great continent. The Empire is very fortunate in that it has no neighbors anywhere nearly as powerful as it is.

§13.03 The Gorvij Lands

The gorvij people inhabit the north central and northeastern provinces of The Empire and the countries north of the northeastern part. This is where most of the adventures take place.

§13.04 The Gorvij Strip

This refers to the gorvij countries on the coast of the Gorvij Sea. From north to south they are called Kwov, Nokinerv, Lewawan, all of which are independent. South of Lewawan is a dependent territory called The Borderlands, South of that is the imperial border territory of Hiplim, and the province of Janelaks.

§13.05 Kwov

An absolute feudal monarchy. There are aristocrats and there are peasants. What's a middle class?

§13.06 Nokinerv

Was an absolute feudal monarchy up to about 40 years ago. Economic failure has pretty much quenched democratic enthusiasm, though and an attempt at the restoration of the old order may be coming soon.

§13.07 Lewawan

Currently dominated by a coalition of nationalists and religious extremists. Lately the government has been expelling all but native born gorvijes.

§13.07.1 Desert Port

A small city on the western edge of Lewawan, where a road leads north and west. This is the only part of the country where foreigners are allowed. But they'd better be leaving soon.

§13.08 The Borderlands

A rich and fertile land but exposed to raids from Hiplim

§13.09 Hiplim

Also called Wild Hiplim, the sanctuary of pirates, bandits, and political refugees.

§13.10 Janelaks and Janelaktim

The imperial province of Janelaks is mostly swamps and hills. The population is concentrated in the capital city, Janelaktim. Janelaktim is one of the major ports on the Gorvij Sea and a summer playground for many nildrer who come up to escape the heat and dust of their own land.

§13.11 The Sierra Ijaleheks

Moving west, that is, inland from the coast, the treacherous cliffs and canyons of Hiplim narrow until they become a sheer sided curtain of bare rock which marks the northern border of The Empire for almost half its length.

§13.12 The Fref Desert.

This desert marks the western borders of Kwov, Nokinerv, Lewawan and The Borderlands. It extends west from there until it reaches the end of the Sierra Ijaleheks and spills south into the imperial province of Huwauwu.

§13.13 Violet Junction

A small town just north of The Empire at a small but important crossing point in the Sierra Ijaleheks. During caravan season it becomes a fair sized city of tents and booths.

§14 The Hyuumin Races

Hyuumins have more cultural variations than the other species.

§14.1 The Gorvijes

The majority population in this area. They have blocky features, dark hair and eyes, and dusky yellowish skin. Their major sport is soccer. Their diet includes a lot of root vegetables, plus a few grains and cheeses. Meat is added to many dishes but is rarely eaten alone. Their meatiest dish is sausage roll. Their favorite drug is alcohol, followed closely by caffeine. Their coffee is vile and they wouldn't have it any other way. They also have trefk, an aromatic shrub whose leaves contain a stimulant somewhat stronger than caffeine. Some smoke tobacco, mostly in the form of fancy cigars. Stronger drugs are mainly used by people at bottom of society.

In the past few centuries they have emerged from a period of feudalism to form parliamentary republics (except in Kwov) but there is still a certain amount of class privilege. Most speak a single language, also called gorvij, which has distinct dialects. Their major religion is a simple polytheistic one called Our Helpers. Aristocrats follow a triad called The Protectors.

§14.1.1 The Pan Gorvij League

Radicals who want to break the gorvij provinces away from The Empire and unite them with the non imperial gorvij countries to form an all gorvij power which would be purged of all other peoples.

§14.2 The Waujaks

Inhabitants of a region west of The Gorvij Lands, these have medium to dark brownish red skin, with dark red wavy hair, black eyes and sharp pinched features. Their major sports are soccer and polo. They eat a variety of grains and they like their meat pit roasted. The best way to curry favor among a waujak constituency is to throw a luau. Their favorite drugs are alcohol and caffeine, but they consider coffee drinking as degenerate, preferring to chew or snort it. Waujaks are divided into two cultural groups called the east and west waujaks. Both speak waujak, with some minor differences. West waujaks have a polytheistic religion, whose deities are all much less powerful than those of other peoples. East waujaks have little or no religion, they tend to regard gods as unreliable. Waujaks in the Gorvij Lands are usually there for trade or other business. Nearly all of them are east waujaks.

The waujak's major sports are soccer and polo.

To a certain extent, gorvijes and waujaks are in competition for development and precedence within The Empire. Some have compared this to sibling rivalry. Gorvij waujak crossbreeds tend to be tall and have bright red hair. They are reputed to have violent tempers.

§14.3 The Nildrer

Nildrer are of medium height and build with sharp noses, gray or graygreen eyes and black hair. Their skin is grayish in hue with subdued coloring that ranges from olive to coppery. Their lands are just south of the gorvij lands. There are two main cultures, called nambethic and wiihalic, after their languages. Here we are only dealing with the nambethic nildrer, who inhabit the northern portion of the nildrer lands.

The nambethics are the creators and rulers of The Empire, so rich that they have no working class. In fact, in what is called the Inner Empire, where the population is close to 100 percent nildrer, they don't even have servants. Their menial labor is done by magic. Perhaps that's why the inner imperial nildrer rarely leave home.

The nildrer have made empire keeping into a high art. They keep a light hand on the reins, but make no mistake, there are reins. A certain amount of order and stability, and regular remittance of taxes, is all they ask. But if a local government ignores imperial notices, eventually the nildrer army will show up and then people and places will disappear. In general. The Outer Empire has benefited from this arrangement. Certainly, not being allowed to make war on each other has freed a lot of resources. Nildrer are often described as "steel under silk".

Nildrer eat a wide variety of foods and take a wide variety of drugs. But only the licensed decadents, or "fast lifers" are permitted to get wasted. Their major sports are chess and blindfold judo. They worship two major deities, Laran and Nam, for whom their central provinces, and thus the empire, are named.

§14.4 The Rinkers

Rinkers are short with light yellowish skin. They are prone to freckles and strawberry birthmarks. Their hair is straight or wavy and normally ranges from rust to dark chestnut. They have large beaklike noses and dark brown eyes under high craggy brows. Their lands are great seas of grass southwest of the gorvij lands. They have one language, also called rinker.

You want barbarians? We've got barbarians! Rinkers are a wandering, tribal people, who live on horseback and love warfare. Or think they do, the nildrer have been quietly weaning them of it for several generations now. Still, they have a fearsome reputation and are greatly sought after as guards and mercenaries. They're big on honor, as defined by their Warrior Code. Their major sports are anything that helps physical conditioning. They scorn the idea of military science, mainly because it comes up with moves that don't involve headlong charges. They eat mostly meat. The Warrior Code only permits intoxication for medical or mystical purposes, so they drink mainly weak beers and wines that have as much vinegar as alcohol in them, and sometimes coffee. They mainly worship their ancestors.

§14.5 The Ferevee

The ferevee, who once dominated the area that today is the Fref Desert and the Gorvij Lands, were short and delicate as hyuumins go. They had pale skin, silvery hair, and bright emerald green eyes. They dominated the gorvijes, the waujaks, and other peoples, killing or enslaving them at whim. Their major sports were torture and vendetta. They prided themselves on their ability to endure their own cruelty. They were contemptuous of other peoples who did not have that ability. The waujaks are said to have once had a full set of major gods, but the ferevee gods, called the Pain Bringers, ate them. Their language, also called ferevee, was the source of many elements of both the gorvij and waujak languages, including their common alphabet. This is seldom acknowledged.

Part of the attitudes taken by flajessavs towards hyuumins comes from the knowledge that the ferevee differed from the rest only in their culture, all hyuumins have the same potential for viciousness.

Finally about three thousand years ago, the ferevee miscalculated and provoked simultaneous revolts among all their subject peoples. It was at this time that the nildrer, who had previously stayed in their own lands and avoided contact with the ferevee, moved in. The Empire gained new territory, and the ferevee were wiped out. Or were they?

§14.5.1 Ferevee Throwbacks

There is ferevee blood in the gorvijes and sometimes it shows. Throwbacks, that is, gorvijes born with ferevee features, are often shunned or abused. Many gorvijes suffer from what can only be called post traumatic ancestral memory and react badly to the sight of throwbacks and sometimes just to mention of the ferevee. That, and/or the possibility of their being reincarnations of the old ferevee, is enough to explain why some throwbacks have formed ferevee revivalist cults. But is there also some remnant of the old ferevee still hiding out somewhere? Opinions vary, but rumors continue.

§15 The Flajessav Races

All flajessavs speak the same language, which they don't have a name for, they just call it "speaking". Hyuumins of course call it flajessav. They have a few specialized deities, but mostly worship forces. Treshelbs are resistant to a wide range of animal poisons and immune to most vegetable ones, with two major exceptions. Alcohol tends to make them sick and mint makes them high. They have trouble with fat and large amounts of protein. They normally eat leaves, fruits, flowers, bugs and fish, with occasional small mammals.

Flajessavs have the following species characteristics: silent movement, speed, infravision, and sharp senses.

§15.1 The Challits

Challits are the tallest of the flajessavs. Their skin and eyes are golden. They have long thick golden hair on their heads and fine golden down on their faces and bodies. Hyuumins often call them "fairies", "golden fairies", or "pookas". Challits live in open spaces, or sometimes in their own sections of hyuumin cities. They like to build in brick and fused glass and are somewhat fanatical about having everything in their color, gold. They eat goldfish, usually steamed with orange juice, keep canaries, and raise sunflowers. They engage in glassmaking, light metal smithing, woodwork, and other handicrafts, all of which they claim to have invented.

§15.2 The Treshelbs

These are known for their button noses and lynx like tufts. Their skin is pink and covered all over with a thick down. Only their head hair and tufts grow out. Their hair and down are glossy white with a mottling of silver, gray or gold. Their eyes are bluegray to black. They are of average height for flajessavs and just a little on the robust side, which still makes them thin by hyuumin standards. They live in forests in shelters made of wood and cloth. They make salads by combining strong tasting leaves. They especially like oleander and poison oak. They love to eat cigars, which are their equivalent of spicy sausages.

Their main occupation is weaving. Hyuumins often call them "woods fairies", "sasquatches", or "dryads".

§16 The Braksonts

The braksonts in the area seem to be without ethnic division. And they never talk about such things with outsiders. In fact, only a few braksonts are permitted, or expected, to keep track of their own history. So the masses probably wouldn't know if there are other braksont races. Braksonts claim to speak just one language, which they say has a name but they won't share it. So hyuumins call it braksont. Braksonts like sports with physical impact and danger. They are immune to most mineral poisons, and in fact seem to have a minor nutritional need for metal and charcoal. They usually eat roots, bark, and meat. They like to make stews, burn them slightly, and mix the burned part back in. They all worship one deity, Krang the Smith, and if they're lucky, he'll thump them with his mighty hammer as a sign of favor. Some worship additional deities as well.

Braksonts have the following species characteristics: slope feeling, seismic feeling, spell resistance, infravision, and subsonic hearing.

§17 The Dargaolhuun Races

One quarter to one third of all dargaolhuuns live in their own isolated settlements whose locations they try to keep secret. Of the rest, most live among hyuumins, the remainder among flajessavs and braksonts. These easily fall into dependent or subservient roles. They seem to prefer being with hyuumins, despite the constant exploitation and risk of abuse, because they feel they understand them better than any other species. Imperial law does not allow slavery, but dargaolhuuns are often bound to their employers for unspecified lengths of time.

Dargaolhuuns have the following species characteristics: silent movement, climbing, and spell resistance.

§17.1 The Vordins

Vordins have deep orangish brown skin, round open faces, dark red eyes and black hair. Hyuumins regard all dargaolhuuns as stocky, but among the dargaolhuuns, vordins are regarded as tending to broader hips and fatter bottoms than shougilds. Vordins pride themselves on education and professional skills. They are divided roughly into two groups, those who work and those who study. Individuals usually change between the two groups regularly. While they do not maintain academic institutions, they try to spread knowledge among themselves whenever possible. There is a saying that in their lifetime each vordin should investigate one mystery, pursue two careers, train three apprentices, and publish four reports.

Vordins who live among hyuumins work as chefs, stewards, accountants, and other skilled service professionals. While they seldom reach positions of authority, many of them believe their combined individual efforts are successfully reshaping hyuumin cultures. Since one of their arts is cooking, they have an ever expanding cuisine, which they are passing on to their hyuumin employers as part of this quiet conspiracy. Vordins call their language vordin, hyuumins usually call it dargaolhuun. Most vordins worship Tradalsk, who extends her wisdom and protection to them and even to shougilds. Some seek the special protection of the Placators, impersonal spirits charged with influencing the behavior of the big folk. Their major sports are croquet and handball. They also play a lot of card games. They also learn to follow their employers' favorite sports, the better to maintain confidence.

§17.2 The Shougilds

Shougilds have mahogany skin, narrow faces, dark brown or black eyes and straw colored hair. They are regarded as having slenderer builds than vordins, although hyuumins don't seem to notice the difference. Hence fat shougilds are often referred to as being socially ambitious, wanting to be mistaken for vordins. Whether working for the big folk, or even for vordins, shougilds form the bottom rung of skilled and unskilled labor. And when vordins and shougilds are employed together, there is usually a distinct difference in their status. The saying is "vordin at the stove, shougild in the pantry", meaning that as kitchen servants, vordins cook while shougilds chop and peel. Likewise vordin gardeners may lay out designs and plant, shougilds just weed and dig holes. Shougilds also shine shoes, sweep floors, and wash clothes. There are shougild artisans, but they are generally kept out of sight by employers who take credit for their work. Shougilds speak the same language as vordins but they freely mix in words from hyuumin languages. And they call the language dargaolhuun. Most worship the Placators, as well as Raaz the Unfound, hoping for his gifts of stealth. Their major sports are all forms of what they call relay ball, which combines throwing, catching, interception and base running.